Derbyshire: Couple jailed for blackmailing widow

September 25, 2012, 12:15 pm

A couple have been jailed after they blackmailed a widow by pretending social workers were going to take her children away.

John Jones was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for blackmail and breaching a suspended sentence while Natasha Goodyer was given two years for the same offences.

The pair conned more than £16,000 from the victim after she inherited money following the death of her husband and another close relative.

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Twenty-six-year-old Jones, of Trent Street, Alvaston, told the victim he had a friend who worked in social services and that he had learnt there were plans to take her three children away. He told her that if she paid him, he would arrange for the computer records to be deleted.

Goodyer (24), of Magellan Way, Wilmorton, sent text messages to Jones, pretending to be a social worker, to help him make his story seem plausible.

When the victim ran out of money, she gave Jones her jewellery to sell.

Officer in the case Detective Constable John Harris said: “The pair conned a vulnerable, grieving woman out of thousands of pounds.

“It was a despicable crime and I hope these sentences bring some form of comfort to the victim.”

The pair were sentenced at Derby Crown Court on Friday, September 21.